diff --git a/git-cvsimport.perl b/git-cvsimport.perl
index 0a31ebd820..344f1206d1 100755
--- a/git-cvsimport.perl
+++ b/git-cvsimport.perl
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 use IO::Pipe;
 use POSIX qw(strftime tzset dup2 ENOENT);
 use IPC::Open2;
+use Git qw(get_tz_offset);
 
 $SIG{'PIPE'}="IGNORE";
 set_timezone('UTC');
@@ -864,7 +865,9 @@ sub commit {
 	}
 
 	set_timezone($author_tz);
-	my $commit_date = strftime("%s %z", localtime($date));
+	# $date is in the seconds since epoch format
+	my $tz_offset = get_tz_offset($date);
+	my $commit_date = "$date $tz_offset";
 	set_timezone('UTC');
 	$ENV{GIT_AUTHOR_NAME} = $author_name;
 	$ENV{GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL} = $author_email;
diff --git a/perl/Git.pm b/perl/Git.pm
index 931047c51d..a56d1e76f7 100644
--- a/perl/Git.pm
+++ b/perl/Git.pm
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ =head1 SYNOPSIS
                 command_bidi_pipe command_close_bidi_pipe
                 version exec_path html_path hash_object git_cmd_try
                 remote_refs prompt
+                get_tz_offset
                 temp_acquire temp_release temp_reset temp_path);
 
 
@@ -102,6 +103,7 @@ =head1 DESCRIPTION
 use Cwd qw(abs_path cwd);
 use IPC::Open2 qw(open2);
 use Fcntl qw(SEEK_SET SEEK_CUR);
+use Time::Local qw(timegm);
 }
 
 
@@ -511,6 +513,27 @@ sub version {
 
 sub html_path { command_oneline('--html-path') }
 
+
+=item get_tz_offset ( TIME )
+
+Return the time zone offset from GMT in the form +/-HHMM where HH is
+the number of hours from GMT and MM is the number of minutes.  This is
+the equivalent of what strftime("%z", ...) would provide on a GNU
+platform.
+
+If TIME is not supplied, the current local time is used.
+
+=cut
+
+sub get_tz_offset {
+	# some systmes don't handle or mishandle %z, so be creative.
+	my $t = shift || time;
+	my $gm = timegm(localtime($t));
+	my $sign = qw( + + - )[ $gm <=> $t ];
+	return sprintf("%s%02d%02d", $sign, (gmtime(abs($t - $gm)))[2,1]);
+}
+
+
 =item prompt ( PROMPT , ISPASSWORD  )
 
 Query user C<PROMPT> and return answer from user.
diff --git a/perl/Git/SVN.pm b/perl/Git/SVN.pm
index 59215fa86e..8c84560a49 100644
--- a/perl/Git/SVN.pm
+++ b/perl/Git/SVN.pm
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@ package Git::SVN;
 use File::Path qw/mkpath/;
 use File::Copy qw/copy/;
 use IPC::Open3;
-use Time::Local;
 use Memoize;  # core since 5.8.0, Jul 2002
 use Memoize::Storable;
 use POSIX qw(:signal_h);
@@ -22,6 +21,7 @@ package Git::SVN;
     command_noisy
     command_output_pipe
     command_close_pipe
+    get_tz_offset
 );
 use Git::SVN::Utils qw(
 	fatal
@@ -1311,14 +1311,6 @@ sub get_untracked {
 	\@out;
 }
 
-sub get_tz {
-	# some systmes don't handle or mishandle %z, so be creative.
-	my $t = shift || time;
-	my $gm = timelocal(gmtime($t));
-	my $sign = qw( + + - )[ $t <=> $gm ];
-	return sprintf("%s%02d%02d", $sign, (gmtime(abs($t - $gm)))[2,1]);
-}
-
 # parse_svn_date(DATE)
 # --------------------
 # Given a date (in UTC) from Subversion, return a string in the format
@@ -1351,7 +1343,7 @@ sub parse_svn_date {
 			delete $ENV{TZ};
 		}
 
-		my $our_TZ = get_tz();
+		my $our_TZ = get_tz_offset();
 
 		# This converts $epoch_in_UTC into our local timezone.
 		my ($sec, $min, $hour, $mday, $mon, $year,
diff --git a/perl/Git/SVN/Log.pm b/perl/Git/SVN/Log.pm
index 3cc1c6f081..3f8350a57d 100644
--- a/perl/Git/SVN/Log.pm
+++ b/perl/Git/SVN/Log.pm
@@ -2,7 +2,11 @@ package Git::SVN::Log;
 use strict;
 use warnings;
 use Git::SVN::Utils qw(fatal);
-use Git qw(command command_oneline command_output_pipe command_close_pipe);
+use Git qw(command
+           command_oneline
+           command_output_pipe
+           command_close_pipe
+           get_tz_offset);
 use POSIX qw/strftime/;
 use constant commit_log_separator => ('-' x 72) . "\n";
 use vars qw/$TZ $limit $color $pager $non_recursive $verbose $oneline
@@ -119,7 +123,7 @@ sub run_pager {
 sub format_svn_date {
 	my $t = shift || time;
 	require Git::SVN;
-	my $gmoff = Git::SVN::get_tz($t);
+	my $gmoff = get_tz_offset($t);
 	return strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S $gmoff (%a, %d %b %Y)", localtime($t));
 }